"Quit that,alex..!"I called out !it was the perfect weekend and there he was,my wretched little twin,alex trying to wake me up by using vaccuum cleaner on my toes!Leave it to him to find such crazy ways to annoy me!Yes,these kind of things happen to me everyday!well,you might be asking who i am,i'm Olive Priston, a 13-year old , desperately trying to cop up with my life....

"What?, i'm just trying to wake you up ,sis!"Alex said...."well then,be happy, you suceeded!"I said bouncing off the bed and making my way downstairs!I could very well hear my brother rolling with laughter!I groaned,I felt like running back up and smacking him, but I knew I'd just be wasting my time ,he'll never learn....With all kinds of thoughts on my head, i went down to my mom's 'cooking' laboratory!my mom thinks she is a world class chef, and ,as you might have already guessed that my house always smells of burnt cookie dough.....because mom,is always tryin' out new foods and stuff and half the time,they are a mess! but,she still is world’s best mom.......!

"whats up,mommy dear?"i asked as I creeped up from behind and hugged her........
"i'm trying out a brand new recipie! smashed apples on oat meal cookies,with crème’ brulee’’she said triumphantly.
"yum yum mom!"i said ,but what was actually going through my head, was,."eeeew..........gross!"
I shrugged and made my way out of the kitchen, and back to my room,not before calling out a good morning to dad,who as always was reading his newspaper,with the greatest curiosity!I slowly made my way to the couch and started searching for the remote control.From there I could clearly see the window , and then i noticed walking by the window, two figures. I smiled at my two other friends, Lin and Harry, as they made their way to our backyard.

Soon, alex and I joined and we began our little chat as usual…….
"Hey guys ,did you hear the story of the teenager who drowned in the pond at that dark mansion?"Lin started rather mysteriously.
"No!Why?"we all echoed leaning forward.......
"well,Chirsten,was a very popular girl in high school!you know that littlebell highshcool lies right next to the dark mansion right?well,one day christen and friends were playing a game of throw ball when christen accidentally tossed the ball to the mansion,all the kids were cross,and they forced her into taking the ball!christen din't want everyone to think she was a chicken,so she said ,"fine" and climbed over the wall and entered the backyard and saw the ball near a lake she took a step,then slowly leaned to to take the ball ,when suddenly slipped and fell into the pond!never to be seen again!"Lin stopped...
A chill ran down my spine!but Lin wasn’t done yet!

"Then from the day onwards,on every new moon they say that inscriptions appear on the walls of the mansion that said "i will have my revenge-C.N" and christens full name is actually Christen Nemson!from that day on the Christen curse started!every fort night each of the girls who forced christen to take the ball the last day,died due to unknown reasons!"Lin stopped,i could see that she was terrified!so was i!
But alex started laughing,"That's a bunch of baloney!"he said, "why, let's go check the mansion out ourselves"....he declared........

"ALEX!are you nuts?"i exclaimed jumping up!
"hm..........Olive is a chicken.....she is afraid of ghosts...........Olive is a chicken......"alex started singing and walked around me over and over....
"you better stop doing,that..."i warned ready to pounce at him!
"well,if your not a chicken,you'll come with me!"Alex dared me!there's no way i'm gonna back out from a dare,especially,from my annoying twin!
"fine!i'll come with you!!"i declared,though a small voice inside me kept on saying,don't do it olive,it's too dangerous...but if i bailed out,he would tease me my entire life about this,and better than that would be being buried alive by that ghost!
I thought and looked at harry who just nodded as in deep thought.
i turned at Lin next,Lin shuddered a bit before hesitantly saying,"well,if all of you are going,why shouldn't I....?"she asked in a soft voice........"it's a deal then!meet at our house tomorrow at 10!"alex said in a leader-ish manner!"tomorrow itself?"I asked meekly..."why? are you scared?"Alex snapped back..."ofcourse not!"i said stiffening a bit!


The following night,i couldn't even sleep well!Each time my eyes closed ,it would snap open again as the picture of the mansion came to my mind.suddenly,the door to my room started creaking,i heard footsteps...soon the door opened wide as a shadowy figure entered room.........."aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh........moonstterrrrr............."I shut my eyes and screamed at the top of my voice.
"Is something wrong dear?I just came to look if i left my flip flops over here...."I opened my eyes on hearing the alarmed voice of my mother."Mom.....it was you ?"I asked relieved to know that it was just my dear Mom!.I felt unusually happy and pounced on her and gave her a big hug,not before hearing a loud laughter near the door...
."ALEX....!"I growled ,"why are you in my room again?"i asked hoping he din't see me screaming....."Your face!your face when mom came in!It was priceless.....and you screamed 'Monster'!it was hilarious!"he said rolling on the floor with laughter!i was red with embarrassment!"i..i...was just surprised..."i said in my defense."no you weren't surprised,you were scared!"he said and started imitating me screaming........."you are so gonna pay..."i said pouncing on him.....
."that's enough!back to your bed!both of you!"It was mom and she seemed angrier than ever."but mom..."we started to protest..."no explanations,back to bed,and when i say N-O-W,it means now!"she said walking out of the room with alex following,but it's my brother alex we are talking about,so just before he left he turned back and mouthed the words,"scaredy cat".I squeezed my hand,and then laid down at my bed,maybe because the bed was comfy and the heater was on, on that cold night,I felt very comfortable and I soon drifted to sleep.........


Next morning I was feeling very much active ,and i bounced off the stairs and called out good morning to everyone,but I was surprised to find Lin and harry waiting for me.......I was surprised at first but then i remembered ,wasn't today the day we were supposed to go to that wretched mansion?all my strength drained as I asked,"it's 10 already?"
"duh!now dress up!"Harry said.."for what..?"dad inquired to which Alex replied,"we are going to do some explorin',daddy!" "Is that so?"Dad asked lifting his head from the newspaper,for the first time,"exploration...let's see.....would you children like to have some old walkie-talkies,me and your uncle ben used to play with when we were little lads?it would be very helpful...."all of us nodded in excitement,"we'd love to have those,uncle jim!" lin said getting all worked up....."then follow me!"he said in a agent-ish manner.....as we all made our way to the basement....the room was filled with dust,and we all covered our noses,but the dust didn't seem to affect dad...as he started searching through a big pile of trash.."I know it is somewhere here...."he would say every now and then,then would eventually add,"or maybe in that carton!"and start searching all over again,we joined in too but with no luck....we were all starting to get tired of this searching and just when we were about to say no,thanks and leave,we heard dad's triumphant call,"finally!found it!"and we all swarmed around him,"i knew it was still here!"he said smiling brightly!"here you go!"he said handing each of us a walkie -talkie!and we soon were out of the basement and boy we were glad...!"thanks dad!"I and Alex echoed as Lin and harry added,"that was very nice of you uncle......"with that i went straight to the kitchen and grabbed a bite,before rushing to where the rest of us were...."ready to go,Scaredy cat?"alex asked smirking."You bet!"I said ignoring the fact that he called me a scaredy cat....and,we were soon off!

Alex ,as always ,started telling to lin and harry about how i screamed last night....and,boy he was adding a lot of spice!
"alex,i din't hug the pillow and cried mommy,you made that up!"I said finally unable stay quiet any longer!"alright!you din't do that !but you did scream 'moooonsterrr......' "he said and everyone started laughing,everyone except me,obviously!


Soon the big dark house came into view,I shuddered at the sight of the big mansion!my brain kept on commanding my legs to turn around and run,but my pride made me stand there!

"C'mon!"alex said dragging me to the front!we rang the doorbell!once,twice,still no reply..."there's no one here !let's go back!"I and lin kept on insisting but Harry and Alex wouldn't budge..."boys...."we groaned......"what's the fun if someone answers the door?"Alex suddenly asks,"we have to sneak in"..........well,he did have a point!the last thing i wanted was christen's ghost opening the door!suddenly,out of the blue,the door opened with a creak....our eyes widened in surprised......."it can't be...."I whispered..........nodding my head sideways..."lets go in!"Alex and harry said as they rudhed in ,and we poor girls,couldn't do anything other than to follow them.........as soon as we entered,the door slammed shut,and all of a sudden it was pitch dark everywhere! i felt a cold sensation on my body "great..."i muttered...."i knew this was a bad idea!"

Harry shined the flashlight , yes only he was thoughtful enough to bring a flashlight! As the light shined, i saw that we were in a rather big hallwaywe walked through the hallway,spotting a few things,one appeared to be a skull,no, an ash tray, a scull shaped ash tray! weird....I though.............."Do ghosts smoke too?"I asked out aloud,to which everyone started laughing...."sheeesh!don't make so much voice....the ghosts might know that we are here....."Alex says grinning.........Lin,who didn't get the humor of it said,"as if they don't already know..."She said rolling her eyes......I covered my mouth to hold back my laughter........Lin was so silly at times,i forget she's 13!
yup! that's Lin for you...sometimes Lin jus...........my thoughts were again cut off byAalex's voice,"look!look a shadow!and it's moving......"he said in a terrified voice,I was alarmed....as i looked to where Alex pointed...."your so easy scare..."he said sarcastically............"so....any problem?"i asked placing my hands on my hips......"nope nothin'...."he said,siting on a couch........

Soon,we split up and i decided to look in the kitchen . On entering the kitchen i felt warmer.....somehow.....as i went closer,i saw a refrigerator, "wonder what ghosts eat!"I said to myself....but it must have been my imagination,but i thought i heard a voice say,"do you really need to know that,olive?"a chill ran down my spine as I gulped and opened the refrigerator...all it had was a leftoever sandwich bits.........hm.....I expected to see something like a finger or a glass of blood or something.......but,oh well!I made my way back to the hallway,and i saw the others standing there too....I was about to ask if they were done searching....but then all of a sudden, I felt something tickling the back of my neck,i rubbed there with my hand,then it seemed alright......then again I felt the same,but this time,harder…I let out a silent cry, as I felt a cold sensation, of someone, grabbing hold of my throat......I tried to gasp and scream, but my voice was stuck, unknown to myself, a drop of tears ran down my cheek, as the strangling kept getting tighter and tighter.......the smell of sanitizors ,i realized,came from the hand...well,last time I checked, ghost don't use sanitizors…but now didn’t seem to be the time to make such observations, and rather strangely, the grip loosened and suddenly........my eyes were dazzled,by the immense light that fell upon it ever so quickly……I closed my eyes for a insant, and when I gathered myself back together, I saw a tall,lean man wearing a lab coat. His eyes were rather mean looking,and he had crinky gray hair,that looked like it hadn’t been washed or combed for centuries………But I was sure I’ve seen him somewhere…..Yes!Dr.Reek, the crazy scientist of the town….

“KIDS!I hate these annoying little creatures! Sneaks in wherever you go!”,the man grumbled….as we all stood there dumbfounded……. I think it’s safe to assume that we were all ,nevertheless, expecting a ghost! “I took this house assuming I’ll finally be able to get some peace, and they come here…”he continued complaining as we stared at him apologetically…..”Now will you kids just get lost or should I call your parents…?”. Without wasting a moment we ran out as if our clothes were on fire!

We didn’t utter a word as we walked back to our house….. “what a downer…”Alex groaned finally breaking the silence…..”yeah……”Harry nodded in agreement. I and Lin didn’t say a word, but I’m sure she was thinking the same thing I was thinking ,Atleast, we didn’t get held for breaking in into private property…….,”still, isn’t it strange that Dr.Reek, bought a new house without anyone knowing….? And that too, a haunted hou…’’ “quit it, Alex!” I intervened ,”we’re done!”, though I sounded angry, but inside, I was smiling,on how we made a complete fool of ourselves......

END

To the judges and others,
Thanks a lot, for reading my article, and please let me know if there were any mistakes , and i'd love to hear your reviews about this!

Love, mystrygal!